From: Margaret Rakas <mrakas**At_Symbol_Here**SMITH.EDU>
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Emerging issues in occupational health and safety?
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 2020 21:34:32 -0400
Reply-To: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU>
Message-ID: CAAszpkx3PPnTyVr_hiPe-MO-rwohPGehLRKu+5fVkD_6YjgD+w**At_Symbol_Here**mail.gmail.com
In-Reply-To <19EAE0C6-8A71-4377-A2D0-5A50E767F364**At_Symbol_Here**keene.edu>


Biosafety, starting with the CDC's BMBL.

What do the various biosafety levels mean in terms of practices and lab setups (forget about spending a lot of time on 4, concentrate on 1-2, some time on 3). What's the difference between risk group and biosafety level? Practices to keep lab people safe, practices for support staff (custodial, vendors repairing equipment). The difference between disinfection and sterilization. What does 'contact time' mean in terms of disinfectants?

Whether your students go to work for academia, biotech, or general construction industry, they need some background on how to deal with infectious diseases in the workplace...as we are sadly learning..

Margaret

On Sun, Apr 12, 2020 at 4:44 PM Stuart, Ralph <Ralph.Stuart**At_Symbol_Here**keene.edu> wrote:
I am teaching a class this semester for undergrad safety majors with the title "Safety and Health Standards".

I have interpreted this title broadly to include all of the environmental factors that help an organization prioritize its EHS program relative to other opportunities the organization is interested in pursuing. Unfortunately, due to the change in venue from classroom to electronic meetings, I am not able to offer the field trips I had hoped to in the second half of April. It occurs to me that one topic that I could substitute for the field trips is "emerging issues in occupational health and safety".

Topics that come to mind under this heading include:

- Firefighter exposure to emerging chemical concerns, both in fire settings and fire fighting foams

- The connection between safety culture and workplace power relationships

- Connecting the EHS program to the organization's mission

- Emerging training media, both for safety professionals to continue their education and to provide training to workers

- Responding to performance based standards (e.g. ISO standards, VPP, etc.)

- The emergence of the intersection of biological and chemical safety issues in the public sphere and the impact of the differences between these two paradigms on public policy

It occurred to me the DCHAS members may be able to help identify trends that I have overlooked. I am interested in emerging topics will impact of careers of safety professionals over the next 15 to 20 years. So, I'd appreciate any suggestions of other topics that I could include in this catalog, and even better, references where someone interesting in more information about this topic this suggestion could go to find out more.

Thanks in advance for any help with this.

- Ralph


Ralph Stuart, CIH, CCHO
Environmental Safety Manager
Keene State College
603 358-2859

ralph.stuart**At_Symbol_Here**keene.edu

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--
Margaret A. Rakas, Ph.D.
Lab Safety & Compliance Director
Clark Science Center
413-585-3877 (p)

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